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Cher’s touching ode to Adam Rippon in the Time 100 issue is as beautiful as he is

Adam Rippon
Adam Rippon Photo: Facebook/Rippon

The Time 100 issue is out, highlighting the top newsmakers of 2018 and guess who is on the list?

Queer darling Adam Rippon, of course.

Celebrities write touching commentary about the subjects, but Rippon scored a high honor. Cher wrote his tribute. What did she say? Here it is in full.

All figure skaters are beautiful, but Adam Rippon is different. He isn’t just a beautiful skater. He has humility, grace and an incredible sense of humor.

You could see in the leather-harness suit he wore to the Academy Awards that he isn’t afraid to take chances. It wasn’t about the suit, really. It was about the fact that he dares to be different in a world where being different always comes with a cost. I thought it was fabulous, of course.

Adam is a skater who happens to be gay, and that represents something wonderful to young people. When I was young, I had no role models—everyone looked like Sandra Dee and Doris Day. There was nobody who made me think, Oh, I could be like them. They represent me. Adam shows people that if you put blood, sweat and tears into what you’re doing, you can achieve something that’s special. You can be special. And I think that’s very brave.

Other LGBT newsmakers include Christian Siriano (with a tribute from Leslie Jones) and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. Rosie O’Donnell wrote a tribute for Roseanne Barr while Sir Elton John profiled Prince Harry.

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